CHAPTER 2

Gay Imperialism:
Gender and Sexuality Discourse in the 'War on Terror'
Jin Haritaworn, with Tamsila Tauqir and Esra Erdem
Suddenly everybody wants a piece of the Palci pie.
Oaheda Choudhury, Out ofPiaa conference, 25 March 2006)
How do we explain the new omnipresence of (some) queers of colour?!
Muslim gays and lesbians have received their debut in TV programmes,
newspaper articles, research projects and political events. At first sight,
this development is new and welcome. It breaks with the imposed silence
of those who have traditionally fallen out of the simple representational
frames of a single-issue identity politics. Other queers of colour, however,
continue to lack a public voice. Moreover, as Leslie Feinberg (2006) ob-
serves, the interest in Muslim gays and lesbians has emerged from a global
context of violent Islamophobia. This raises the question of which stories
are being circulated and how they contest or reinforce racism. It is also
questionable what interest other actors have in this new politics of queer of
colour representation, notably white gays, lesbians, feminists and queers.
I We use 'queer' as an umbrella term for coalitions between people of various marginalised
gender and sexual identities. We are aware of the traps of this usage. First, it is increasingly
equated with 'gay'. Mirroring this gayassimilationism, it is homophobia rather than transpho-
bia or sex-work phobia which is most interesting to current imperialist subjectivities. This is
also why gay Muslims, rather than transgender or sex-working Muslims, are at the centre ofthis
debate. The second problem with queer, which we explore in this article, is that many queers
identify as anti- or post-identity and hence outside of racism and other power relations.
12 Jin Haritaworn, with Tamsila Tauqir and Esra Erdem
Our article focuses on the situation in Britain, where 'Muslim' and 'homo-
phobic' are increasingly treated as interchangeable signifiers. The central fig-
ure in this process is Peter Tatchell who has successfully claimed the role of
the liberator of and expert about Muslim gays and lesbians. This highlights
the problems of a single-issue politics of representation, which equates 'gay'
with white and 'ethnic minority' with heterosexual. At the same time, the
fact that Tatchell's group Outrage passes as the emblem of queer and hence
post-identity politics in Britain shows that the problem of Islamophobia is
not reducible ro the critique of The active participation of right- as
well as left-wing, feminist as well as gay, official as well as civil powers in the
Islamophobia industry proves racism more clearly than ever to be a white
problem, which crosses other social and political differences.
Racism is, further, the vehicle that transports white gays and feminists
into the political mainstream. The amnesia at the basis of the sudden as-
sertion of a European 'tradition' of anti-homophobic and anti-sexist 'core
values' is less a reflection of progressive gender relations than of regressive
race relations. We will point to parallels in the German 'integration' debate
around the recent Immigration Act (Zuwanderungrgesetz) , the so-called
honour killing ofHatun Siiriicii and the new 'MuslimTest' in the national-
ity law. We critically examine the central role ofindividual migrant
2
women
like Seyran and Necla Kelek in these German debates, who are con-
structed as the notable exception which confirms the rule of a victimised
Oriental femininity. Irshad Manji, the lesbian journalist from Canada, is a
further 'exceptional Muslim'. Her popularity in Britain and Germany fur-
ther underlines the transnational nature of these white processes of iden-
tification. In this article, we argue that neither figure - that of the notable
exception and that of the faceless victim without agency - makes sense
outside its imperialist context.
3
The article began as a series ofopen letters by two ofus about the growing
2 The concept 'migrane' has its origin in anei-racist activism in Germany and includes peo-
ple of Turkish, North Mrican, Southern European and other ethnocised origins, including
German-born people of the second and subsequene generations of migration.
3 Our choice of Brirain and Germany stems in part from our biographies. Like many migrants
Gay Imperialism 73
conservatism of the white gay leadership, circulated to queer and feminist
forums in late 2005 and early 2006.
4
Our hope of finding allies and build-
ing anti-racist sexual coalitions was largely disappOinted. Two years later,
while making our last revisions, the issue ofsexual and multicultural rights
is at the brink of academic recognition. While we welcome any challenges
to sexuality discourse in the 'war on terror', our epistemic communities
need to keep asking difficul questions in the spirit of this volume. How
do the new theories reinscribe or challenge the single-issue politics at the
root of this problem, where sexual agency (and theory) remains white and
cultural agency heterosexual? How do they contest or reinforce a construct
of 'Eastern culture' as homophobic (and therefore open to official control
and of re-colonisation by the 'liberated West')? Does their archive remain
white, or do they acknowledge its theoretical and political predecessors in
queer Muslims and other queers of colour? As we shall demonstrate, an
effective intervention into the ways in which sexual rights and migrant
rights have become constructed as mutually contradictory requires a criti-
cal historiography, which questions how white subjects came to claim the
right to define and theorise sexual liberation projects in the first place.
and people with biographical backgrounds and links to Germany, Jin and Esra migrated to
Britain in the search of a better place Gin is still living here now). Tamsila has visited Germany
and has 'queer-extended' family links with people 'originating' there. The two coneexts are in-
teresting in that they are often presented as opposing paradigms of race relations, with differing
histories of colonialism, genocide, and migration (Piper 1998). Britain has traditionally been
viewed as the more liberal regime, with its (now defunct) ius soli (lawof the soil) model of citi-
zenship and. its (now embattled) state multiculturalism. This conerasting view is coneradicted
by the findings preseneed in this article, which poine to the growing convergence and intertex-
tuality of violene Orientalisms throughout Europe and the self-ideneified 'West'.
4 The second birth place of this article, Esra's and Jin's Intn-seetions classrooms at Hamburg
University and Humboldt University Berlin Ganuary and February 2006), has been more fruit-
ful. We would like thank our students, as well as Jennifer Petzen, the organisers and partici-
pants at the Out ofPlace conference, the Relvisionen panel at the Left Book Days in Berlin,
Liz Fekete, Next Gentkration, and the fellow activists from the Queer&Ethnicity Conference
(Qekon) (Spring 2002), the Queer&Ethnicity space at Queeruption Berlin (Summer 2002), and
the Blaclifist sex radical queer of colour list (Summer 2007), for various moments of collabora-
tion, inspiration and encouragement.
74 Jin Haritaworn. with Tamsila Tauqir and Esra Erdem
The Conditions of Queer-of-Colour Representation In Britain
In the British gay and lesbian mainstream, people ofcolour were tradition-
ally treated as the heterosexual competitors for public resources and recogni-
tion. In contrast to some feminists, most white gays did not identify as part of
a subculture whose internal heterogeneity required justification. Rather, they
located questions of power and justice firmly outside their community.
In this model people of colour long existed only as perpetrators of homo-
phobia. For example, the free community news magazine Pink Paper very
visibly featured Black homophobic individuals or groups such as Robert
Mugabe or Nation ofIslam (see covers of issues 698, 10 August 2001, and
734,26 April 2002). This contrasted with the invisibility of Black gays, who
simply did not exist in this f r ~ e .
Where people of colour were represented as (again heterosexual) victims
ofoppression, we were depicted as privileged. Statements such as 'You could
never say such a thing about a black person' were common in the Pink. The
invention of the state-protected Black subject allows white gays and lesbians
to fantasise themselves as innocent and marginalised - not only by the state
but also and especially by Black people themselves. This invites a repression
of white gay violence towards queers of colour, and naturalises our disloca-
tion from gay space. The narcissism of this definition of oppression became
palpable in April 1999, during the nail bomb attacks by the fascist David
Copeland. Many white gays and lesbians seemed almost triumphant when
Copeland, afrer attacking the black area Brixton and the South-Asian Brick
Lane, chose gay Soho as his third target.
Needless to say, queers of colour already looked back on a history of self-
organisation at that time. Black and Asian sexual culture flourished during
the 1980s under the left-wing Greater London Council (Mason-John and
Khambatta 1993). However, this era left few traces on the Pink, which re-
mained firmly in white hands. In the official gay history, queers of colour
simply did not exist.
The year 2001 appeared to change this dramatically. Even before the at-
tacks on NewYork, Islamhad emerged as the newnational and global enemy.
Since gender and sexuality are the new yardsticks for democracy, white gays
claimed a central role in this 'war on terror'. In the 'liberation' of Muslim
gays, they delivered the ideological justification for the 'civilising' mission.
Gay Imperialism 75
Ironically, given the whiteness as well as masculinity of the magazine, it
was the blown-up face ofa woman in a burqa who adorned the Pink issue on
the military invasion of Mghanistan ('Blood and Sand', 5 October, 2001).
The young, tan face, its large brown eyes cast upwards at the camera, clearly
followed Orientalist scripts (Yegenoglu 1998). A Muslim woman, presum-
ably heterosexual and hence victimised, was the perfect symbol for the new-
found prowess ofwhite gay masculinity (Perren 2005).
The new gay masculinity was also empowered by the lifting of the ban
on homosexuality. Three issues afrer 'Blood and Sand', another young, at-
tractive face was featured on the cover of the Pink ('Ready for War', 26
October 2001). This time it was a white man with dreamy blue eyes, framed
by camouflage clothing and some leaves and twigs. The pin-up style gaze of
the model, who was also depicted crawling through bushes in the inside of
the magazine, was evocative of gay porn catering to military fetishes. The
aesthetic appeal and near symmetry of these two images, of the 'Muslim'
woman and the gay 'soldier', illustrates the distinct sexual timbre of the gay
participation in the war (see Kuntsman 2008).5 This participation was cel-
ebrated as a multiple human rights victory: the liberation of gays in Britain,
which in turn enabled the liberation offaceless Muslim gays in the countries
of occupation.
Independently of this, Muslim gays had already begun to organise them-
selves. Encouraged by its American predecessor, Ai Fatiha UKwas founded
in 1998 and later (in 2002) re-named lmaan. In 2001, Tamsila Tauqir co-
founded the Safra Project for Muslim lesbians, bisexual women and trans-
people. These developments were overlooked at first by dominant organs
who seemed less interested in 'oppressed gay Muslims' now that they were
speaking for themselves. The editors of the Pink mostly ignored the numer-
ous readers' letters submitted by gay Muslims and their allies, who were
protesting the gay participation in the Islamophobic project.
Then, however, interview requests multiplied, not only from the gay but
also the mainstream press. We argue that this does not constitute a real break
with the traditional marginalisation ofgay Muslims. Rather, political events,
5 The performance of military masculiniry can in this post-ban context also be interpreted as
a shift from a subversive to a loyal repetition (see Haritaworn 2008).
16 Jin Haritaworn, with Tamsila Tauqir and Esra Erdem
academic research projects and media productions about gay Muslims are
controlled by white people who determine which Muslims participate, what
kind of questions they get to answer, and how their contributions are edited.
Ironically, Muslim gays are invited to speak only when they give their voices
up to white people, who can then appear to generously give it back to them.
This was the case in january 2006, during the debate around the homo-
phobic statements by Sir Iqbal Sacranie, the head of the Muslim Council of
Britain. This debate corresponded, both temporally and rhetorically, with the
German one around the 'MuslimTest' of nationality. In the course of the fol-
lowing months, Tamsila Tauqir received numerous requests, not only by the
Pink Gay. com and Gay Times, but also by mainstream publications such as the
Times. Throughout the journalists wanted me to respond to the 'difficulties'
ofbeing gay and Muslim, as well as to the homophobia of Muslim communi-
ties in Britain and abroad. I often suggested shifting the focus to the consider-
able work being done within liberal and progressive Islam. journalists reacted
with silence when I asked them to report on progressive Imams who have
conducted Nikahs (Muslim marriage contracts) for same-sex couples, or on
parents who had supported their gay children.
The same lack of interest in the real agency of gay Muslims characterised
the treatment of an article in Gay. com by Adnan Ali, the founder ofAi Fatiha
UK(Mirza 2006). Ali's article was severely edited without his permission and
converted into a question-answer piece. This way he appeared as an alien
whose experiences required the interpretation of experts, rather than an au-
thor and activist who is capable of representing his own critical voice. In the
next section, we put this politics of representation into its historical context.
The Role of the 'Gay MuslimVictim' In the Islamophoblc project
In her examination of the Lesbian and GayAssociation Germany (LSVD),
jennifer Petzen (2005) argues that the 'integration of gay migrants' is now
a central goal of mainstream gay politiCS in Germany. Petzen regards this
as a new trend among white gays, who are staking out their territory in the
lucrative integration game and entering mainstream politiCS. White ho-
mosexuals assert their equality with white heterosexuals by claiming their
expert status in the civilising of the 'homophobic migrant'.
That this is not only a German phenomenon is illustrated by twO pa-
Gay Imperialism 11
pers. by Puar (2006)6, the non-Muslim queer of colour theorist, and
Leslie Femberg (2006), the white jewish queer and trans activist. The two
authors examine, not coincidentally maybe from a safe trans-Atlantic dis-
tance,. the racial politics of the Australian-British activist Peter Tatchell
group Outrage. Outrage was long considered a forerunner of queer
(Smyth 1996), the direct-action alternative to Stonewall, the other
gay organisation in B itain, which has used lobbying as its prime
polltlcal method. In alternative queer contexts, too, Tatchell has enjoyed
some. popularity. Spring 2006, for example, the flyer of Club WOtever,
the bIggest. queer event in London, called on its queer and gen-
derqueer VISItors to support Tatchell's work through donations.
plays an important role not only for the British public, where
IS as one of the main gay representatives. He has also established
hImself 1Oternationally as an expert on gay issues in Muslim countries as
well those, of and Jamaica. Feinberg describes him as a key
actor 10 the Internatlonal Day of Action Against Homo h b' P
.. , p 0 lC ersecu-
tlon 10 Iran on 19 June 2006. Even though his call for sanctions against
the :Islamo-fascists in Iran' was based on an ambiguous translation from
FarSI, Tatchell has able to expand his 'internationalist' project, most
recently through new or?anisation Peter Tatchell Human Rights Fund
(PTHRF). In an artlcle on hIS website, Tatchell describes the legitimation
of the. PTHRF by quoting the praise of not only two liberal Muslims but
also his own co-worker:
Peter's human rights campaigns have gone global. His successes
mean he is deluged with requests for help from activists all over the
world. To meet these demands, he is working 16 hours a day, seven
6 Puar's Turorist which contains very similar critiques of gay and
queer whiteness at this historical juncture, has only become available to us sl'nce th . . f
thi 'cl PIewrIting 0
f sarti e. uar e egantly conceptualises this with the concept of exceptionalism (the ideology
the as the,vanguard.of sexual progress), and links this with the state of exception (the
suspensIOn of basiC democratic principles such as the rule of law and the national
sovereIgnty of Southern states), and with changes in Orientalism d d'
B'd . . an western gen er regtmes
esl es CrItiquing the politics of TatcheU and Outrage, she also examines homon tI' ali .
d al . ali a on sm
:m .sexu exception sm in American contexts, such as in the debate around the de-criminal-
Isatlon of sodomy, and in Sikh organising.
78 Jin Haritaworn, with Tamsila Tauqir and Esra Erdem
days a week. Such as huge workload is damaging his health and is
unsustainable. We need to raise enough money to get Peter a fully
equipped office and full-time staff support. (http://www.peter-
tatchell.net/religion/pthrf2006.htm, accessed 1 September 2006)
Linguistically, this quote is interesting in that it represents Southern queers
as inundatingTatchell with their demands for help, whichTatchell meets by
sacrificing himself to the point of risking his own health. In using terms
such as 'deluge' and 'sustainable', the passage evokes racialised languages of
environmental and social disaster in a South whose problems will explode if
left to themselves. The quote brings to mind the colonial trope of the white
man's burden, who foregoes his own needs for the sake of saving the poor
victims who cannot help themselves?
In the current context ofIslamophobia, white people are once again able
to identify themselves as the global champions of 'civilisation', 'modernity'
and 'development'. Gay Muslims are the latest symbol of this identity. They
are the ideological token victim who must be liberated from its 'barbaric,
backward' society, by means that include political and military violence. In
this, Muslim gays are joining Muslim women, whose 'liberation', as postco-
lonial feminists have long argued, has traditionally provided the justification
for imperialism.
What is so concerning about these images is not only that they represent
gay Muslims as victims without agency who cannot represent themselves,
but also that these images feed directly into a virulent anti-Muslim racism.
This occurs in the context of the NewWorld Order. Islam and 'the Muslims'
have supplanted the Eastern Block and 'the communists' as the new global
enemies. In contrast to the old enemy, who was merely of a different political
persuasion, the difference that Islam represents goes much deeper, back to its
uncivilised, pre-modern 'culture'.
The construct of 'Muslim homophobia' is central to the debates around
security and 'core values' in the new Europe. It legitimates repressive anti-
terror measures, attacks on nationality, immigration and educational rights
7 We thank Sara Ahmed for suggesting this interpretation in her comments on the earlier draft
of this paper.
Gay Imperialism 79
and .the of civil liberties which we are currentl wit-
nessmg. BesIdes terronsm, gender and sexuality are the ds y hich
th I 1 h b' groun upon w .
; s amop 0 IC at home and abroad are fought.
n Germany, thIS became apparent in January 2006 I'n th d b d
th d' .. , ' e e ate aroun
toe
a
o.f nationality. This test applies exclusively
pp ts w ose pnor natlonality was with a country 'd d 'M
lim' In th .. al draft . consl ere us-
'. ongm , which was subsequently rejected, halfof the thir
questlons m the test were around terrorism the other half d dty
d al' F ' aroun gen er
an ,sex.u Ity. or example, applicants are asked what they think of beatin
ones wife or locking up one's daughter, and what they would do if their
came ,out to them as gay (Furlong 2006).
ThIs reflects a transformation of 'European' identities wID h b 'd 'd
m ' 1" ' c eSI es e-
ocracy now c atm women's equality' and 'gay rights' b I f th .
s "d" , assymoso elr
up.enor mo and civilisation', This elevates gender and sexuality to
polttIcal status, While we welcome this development we find it
vbl to note that its main basis is not a progress in gender and sexual' l' .
ut a
.. 'al po ItIes
regressIon m racI polities.
The postcolonial feminist Chandra Talpade Mohanty ob d h h'
lb' serve ow w lte
e mterested in Orientalised gender and sexual regimes at specific
. es, w ch have more to do with developments in their own cultur th
WIth th 'Oth ' Fiean
al 'de, er. or examp e, the mainstream embrace of gay rights as a 'core
:nueth urmg the debate around Sir Iqbal's statements occurred only five years
er e gay age ofconsent was equalised in 2001 and a mere th aft
th eal f th ' ,reeyears er
.e rep. 0 e mfamous Section 28, which prevented many teachers from
discussmg homosexuality with their pupils 8 The Brl'tl'sh' .
al' 'al . resIstance agamst gay
equ, Ity IS so in the fact that the Labour government had to use the
order to repeal Section 28, as the House of Lords, that ilIar
of Bntlsh traditIon, vetoed its abolition. And during the ht
of the debate around SIr Iqbal m winter 2005/2006 th h h b' g
f' ' e omop 0 IC murder
o a gay man m London barely made it into the news.
8 According to Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988 ch I' hall . .
promote homosexuality or publish material with th. . ,s 00 s s . not intentionally
",""I